UNDERRATED: Matthew Shipp's 'Piano Sutras'

ThirstyEar

A bracingly inventive pianist who never shies from controversy, the 52-year-old Shipp has collaborated with DJ Spooky and El-P, criticized the pretense in Keith Jarrett's music and is said to have gotten into a shoving match with jazz critic Stanley Crouch. But he speaks loudest with his music, heard here in a new and uncompromising 12-track set of solo excursions dedicated to constant invention and a restless pursuit of beauty.

A bracingly inventive pianist who never shies from controversy, the 52-year-old Shipp has collaborated with DJ Spooky and El-P, criticized the pretense in Keith Jarrett's music and is said to have gotten into a shoving match with jazz critic Stanley Crouch. But he speaks loudest with his music, heard here in a new and uncompromising 12-track set of solo excursions dedicated to constant invention and a restless pursuit of beauty. (ThirstyEar)

A bracingly inventive pianist who never shies from controversy, the 52-year-old Shipp has collaborated with DJ Spooky and El-P, criticized the pretense in Keith Jarrett's music and is said to have gotten into a shoving match with jazz critic Stanley Crouch. But he speaks loudest with his music, heard here in a new and uncompromising 12-track set of solo excursions dedicated to constant invention and a restless pursuit of beauty.